No surprise the Mercedes engine out-powered Ferrari in Spa or Monza but Lewis Hamilton winning in Singapore where Vettel scored no points was something totally unexpected. With a 28 point advantage over his rival surely one if not two DNF’s are now needed for Hamilton to lose the lead and the Championship title.
Fourteen races into the current campaign and the Brit is the only driver to have completed every lap of every race this year. Indeed, Hamilton and his Mercedes are ultra-reliable. In 2016 he suffered two retirements, 2015 yielded just one, 2014 resulted in three and 2013, his first year with the German team, resulted in a single DNF.
With 60 race victories Lewis Hamilton is now in second place on the all-time list, 31 adrift of Michael Schumacher, nine ahead of Alain Prost and with 14 more wins than fourth placed Sebastian Vettel.
It is conceivable Hamilton can claim Schumacher’s race winning record too. The pride of Stevenage boasts a better than 50 percent wins-to-race ratio and should his Mercedes car remain dominant, three more full seasons in the sport could see him be the most successful F1 driver of all time.
Stroll now galloping
Meanwhile, Lance Stroll was considered at 3/1 shot to outpoint veteran teammate Felipe Massa at the start of the season. Six races in and you could back the teenager at 12/1 to outscore the Brazilian. Heading to Malaysia just three points separate the duo. Stroll has now claimed 28 points and looks like he could overhaul his veteran garage mate by the season’s close.
It is points, or the lack of them, which has seen Daniil Kvyat lose his seat at Toro Rosso in Malaysia and possibly forever. Fifty races at the team have yielded a best finishing position of ninth and team bosses have clearly lost their patience with the 23-year-old. As Carlos Sainz Jr heading to Renault next year it looks like there will be two new drivers within the Italian team and on the starting grid.
Sainz is replacing Jo Palmer at Renault and with Massa set for retirement once again, plenty of new blood looks set to join the F1 circus in 2018.
